AND all the congregation
lifted up their voice, and cried; and the people wept that night.

2 And all the children of Israel murmured against
Moses and against Aaron: and the whole congregation said unto them, Would God
that we had died in the land of Egypt! or would God we had died in this wilderness!

3 And wherefore hath the LORD brought us unto
this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a
prey? were it not better for us to return into Egypt?

4 And they said one to another, Let us make
a captain, and let us return into Egypt.

5 Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before
all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel.

6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son
of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:

7 And they spake unto all the company of the
children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it,
is an exceeding good land.

8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring
us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither
fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence
is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

10 But all the congregation bade stone them
with stones. And the glory of the LORD appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation
before all the children of Israel.

11 And the LORD said unto Moses, How long will
this people provoke me? and how long will it be ere they believe me, for all
the signs which I have shewed among them?

12 I will smite them with the pestilence, and
disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they.

13 And Moses said unto the LORD, Then the Egyptians
shall hear it, (for thou broughtest up this people in thy might from
among them;)

14 And they will tell it to the inhabitants
of this land: for they have heard that thou LORD art among this
people, that thou LORD art seen face to face, and that thy cloud standeth
over them, and that thou goest before them, by day time in a pillar of
a cloud, and in a pillar of fire by night.

15 Now if thou shalt kill all this
people as one man, then the nations which have heard the fame of thee will speak,
saying,

16 Because the LORD was not able to bring this
people into the land which he sware unto them, therefore he hath slain them
in the wilderness.

17 And now, I beseech thee, let the power of
my LORD be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying,

18 The LORD is longsuffering, and of
great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and by no means clearing
the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation.

19 Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this
people according unto the greatness of thy mercy, and as thou hast forgiven
this people, from Egypt even until now.

20 And the LORD said, I have pardoned according
to thy word:

21 But as truly as I live, all
the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

22 Because all those men which have seen my
glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have
tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

23 Surely they shall not see the land which
I sware unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it:

24 But my servant Caleb, because he had another
spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land
whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

25 (Now the Amalekites and the Canaanites dwelt
in the valley.) To-morrow turn you, and get you into the wilderness by the way
of the Red sea.

26 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron,
saying,

27 How long shall I bear with this evil
congregation, which murmur against me? I have heard the murmurings of the children
of Israel, which they murmur against me.

28 Say unto them, As truly as I live,
saith the LORD, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you:

29 Your carcases shall fall in this wilderness;
and all that were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty
years old and upward, which have murmured against me,

30 Doubtless ye shall not come into the land,
concerning which I sware to make you dwell therein, save Caleb the son
of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

31 But your little ones, which ye said should
be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have
despised.

32 But as for you, your carcases, they
shall fall in this wilderness.

33 And your children shall wander in the wilderness
forty years, and bear your whoredoms, until your carcases be wasted in the wilderness.

34 After the number of the days in which ye
searched the land, even forty days, each day for a year, shall ye bear
your iniquities, even forty years, and ye shall know my breach of promise.

35 I the LORD have said, I will surely do it
unto all this evil congregation, that are gathered together against me: in this
wilderness they shall be consumed, and there they shall die.

36 And the men, which Moses sent to search the
land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by
bringing up a slander upon the land,

37 Even those men that did bring up the evil
report upon the land, died by the plague before the LORD.

38 But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the
son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land,
lived still.

39 And Moses told these sayings unto all the
children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.

40 And they rose up early in the morning, and
gat them up into the top of the mountain, saying, Lo, we be here, and
will go up unto the place which the LORD hath promised: for we have sinned.

41 And Moses said, Wherefore now do ye transgress
the commandment of the LORD? but it shall not prosper.

42 Go not up, for the LORD is not among
you; that ye be not smitten before your enemies.

43 For the Amalekites and the Canaanites are
there before you, and ye shall fall by the sword: because ye are turned
away from the LORD, therefore the LORD will not be with you.

44 But they presumed to go up unto the hill
top: nevertheless the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and Moses, departed not
out of the camp.

45 Then the Amalekites came down, and the Canaanites
which dwelt in that hill, and smote them, and discomfited them, even unto
Hormah.